


What Makes It Worthwhile?

by MissSugarPink



Category: Homestuck, Underfell - Fandom, Undertale
Genre: (duh), Alternate Universe - Underfell, Crossover, Edgy Sans, Feels, One-Shot, Seriously this is angsty, This is the edgy AU after all, Various AU's, Violence, death?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-15 00:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7197290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissSugarPink/pseuds/MissSugarPink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When they started this game, Sans had already had a bad feeling about it. Now, that feeling is justified.</p><p>His dusty planet just got a little dustier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Makes It Worthwhile?

This damn game was going to be the death of all of them, he knew it. When he and his brother had gotten the multiverse invite to play it, he’d been instantly opposed to the idea. Fuck playing games and shit, why would they bother with it? He didn’t have the energy for a “Free-roam RPG with intense interfacing with other players,” as one of the Alphys’s had described. The canon one, he’s pretty sure. Fucking know-it-all space players.

But of course his brother had seen the invite and INSISTED they go. Said it would be the best way to see the other universe “thems” strengths and weaknesses. And what was he going to do, fight his brother? Ha, he’d end up a pile of dust before he knew it. The thought of fighting back came and went. 

So they started the game.

And now they were here, and it fucking sucked!

Sans growled as his eye flashed again, summoning the red-tinted bones he’d been seeing so much of recently, slaying yet another runt of a monster with ease. He felt his LV go up, just a little bit, but it was nothing. Nothing like _actually_ killing someone. This was all just a game, and he didn’t even want to be a star. He was just a tool right now. A means to clean away the filth. 

And this fucking land he was stuck on didn’t help his mood at all. The little lizard guys everywhere didn’t say anything useful about his so called “quest,” and not only that, but seriously? Caves and Rest? What kind of land is called… what, LOCAR? What the shit was that supposed to be? The caves were dark and just reminded him of home too much, and with everything going on, he’d hardly had a second to get a decent amount of sleep. He hated this place, and especially hated going to the caves, but… well. 

He winced as Papyrus stopped beside him. “Come along, Sans,” he said, his voice gruff and cold. Papyrus had been forcing him into just about any cave he could find, in an attempt to find treasure or something of value to the game. Sans looked him over as they both continued forward. Him and his fucking outfit… 

His brother had done… something on his own land. Sans wasn’t even sure what the boss had done, but his brother was now in the most ridiculous looking pajamas ever. A muddy reddish colored tunic and ridiculous pantaloons, it looked like. Somehow, he managed to look threatening - most likely the red cape.

Sans’s eyes flashed to the red slash logo on his brother’s outfit. His ‘God Tier’ outfit, Canon-Alphys had called it. Apparently, that little obnoxious crown on his head meant something about his “classpect”. It had also apparently scared a lot of people who knew more about this ridiculous game. 

When Sans asked him what the outfit stood for, he told him with a glare that he was a “Prince of Blood”. Somehow, that just didn’t bode well in his mind.

“SANS!” Sans jumped as he heard his name called, startled out of his thoughts. Papyrus stood, tapping his foot with a scowl. “This is no time for daydreaming. We have something VERY important to do, and it can’t wait for you to finish gawking at your superiors!”

Did he really have to be so fucking pretentious? Sans forced a strained grin to his face. “Might help if I knew what were for fucking _lookin’ for_ in the first place, boss.”

Papyrus scoffed, shutting his eyes. “Why should you get to know that information? Just follow me. Like you’re supposed to.” He turned his back and kept walking, his cape fluttering from the movement. Sans growled under his breath, having no choice but to follow. He wasn’t about to just wander out here alone. With everything they had prototyped into the kernels, the monsters were annoying, to say the least. 

And so they kept walking, and Sans tried his best to keep up while thinking about the circumstances that surrounded the game. Some bitch from another universe contacts Dr. Alphys, talking about a cross dimensional platform for cooperation. Undyne hears about it, so of course Papyrus heard about it. And as much as he protested and warned against this, Sans couldn't win anyone over, and they started playing anyways.

Then the fucking world blew up. Guess who was fucking right?

So now everyone was dead (though everyone from his own universe was pretty chill about that part) and they were stuck trying to, what, make a new universe? Fuck, there were enough of those already. And Sans had already lost track of everyone playing right now. A lot of canon characters were here, he knew that much. His brother was something called a server player. Sans was his client player. And then Sans’s client was, fuck if he knew why, a kid. A _human_ kid. 

No one on the Underfell team (though there weren't really separate teams or anything, so why call it that?) seemed to trust the kid. Sans didn't give a shit. He just wanted this to be over, fast. He didn’t care about souls anymore, he didn’t care about _anything_ anymore. The only reason he was still acting like he did was, well… Papyrus. 

Boss, he corrected himself.

So, blindly, he kept following his bro- _boss_ around the general wasteland that was his land. He scowled, glancing around at the dry ground. No grass or anything like in some of the warmer areas of Snowdin. Just dry, dusty ground that wasn’t pleasant to look at and was boring to explore. His eyes wandered to the distant mountains, capped in ice. 

Did everything have to remind him of home?

“AHHA!” Sans jumped, looking up at his boss. Papyrus was looking off in the distance towards one of the smaller mountains. He was grinning, his red eyes focusing on… something. Sans squinted - off on the mountain, there was something that looked like a tower. A tower with 4 pillars on the top. Pretty adventury looking, he guessed. 

Papyrus gestured with the red bone in his hand to the tower. “Sans. We’re going there. You’re going to finally be useful and teleport us there.”

Sans grit his teeth. Teleport, that far? Did his bro know how hard that was? Especially someplace he’d never been. The underground was small enough that he could teleport a good distance, but this place was a huge expanse of nothingness. “Boss, that’s pretty fuckin’ fa-”

“Now’s not the time for whining, Sans.” Sans cut off his complaint, brows furrowing. Papyrus crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently. He already looked annoyed. “We need to get over there, and if you would stop being so lazy, we would already BE there. Now hurry up.” He held out his hand.

Sans watched it, glaring at it. This pretentious ass… “And if I say no?”

Papyrus’s eyes widened in surprise before narrowing back into a glare. There was a moment of silence between them before he began to growl. “If you DON’T, then I’ll leave you to walk there on your own.” He turned his back, waving his hand nonchalantly. “Have fun killing every monster on your way there.”

Sans shook his head. “Fine. Just get your fucking ass back over here.” 

Papyrus turned again, a smirk on his face. “Why the sudden change, Sans? I thought you’d prefer walking for once. And if you actually worked on killing these monsters instead of just bypassing them when you can, maybe you would have enough power to end them in one go like I do.” 

As he walked back over, Sans could only try and bite back his growling. The worst thing, he knew, was that the boss was right in this case. If he wasn’t avoiding the beasts of this world as much as possible, he would be gaining a lot of LV. But with only 1 HP, he wasn’t going to risk it. Back in the Underground, no one dared harm him if Papyrus was his brother. But out here?

No one cared who he was. 

Especially not Papyrus.

“Just don’t feel like wastin’ anymore time,” he muttered, reaching out. Papyrus scoffed but thankfully didn’t say anything more. He offered up his arm and Sans held it tight. 

In an instant, all time shattered, all space condensed into the space of an eye on a needle, and they both passed through it. Sans saw every line of code, line of data, line of _life_ and of the Void pass by them, felt the fabric of the universe shift past his body as they teleported. He shuddered and didn’t, he walked and didn’t, he laughed and didn’t, cried over Papyrus’s dead body, laughed over the human’s, watched the sun rise and sun set and barrier rise and fall, and all time and all space was one point that he controlled, he held at his fingertips and bent, and then-

They were at the base of the tower. Sans quickly dropped his hand, stumbling forward as the world spun. He shut his eyes tightly, ignoring the ringing in his skull from the long teleport. He’d been aiming for the top of the tower, fuck, no wonder he was so disoriented. It’d taken a lot longer that time around. He’d seen a lot more in that space between space than he usually did. He was dimly aware of the boss shouting at him to continue forward, but fuck him. He needed a minute. 

He took a shuddering breath, blinking a few times. The world stabilized around him, slowly. Papyrus’s distant words were starting to reach him. “-hat far, Sans. Come on.”

Probably saying it wasn’t that far to teleport. Sans swallowed, taking a deep breath. Obviously, his brother didn’t see that same stuff he did. The combination of white, black, _everything_ between spaces. Papyrus didn’t see nearly as much as he did. No one saw the things he did. He guessed that might be for the best. 

“S-Sorry, Boss,” he muttered, sweat dripping down his skull. He gulped again, taking a deep breath and standing taller, ignoring the feeling deep in his ribcage of sickness. He shoved his hands in his pockets, grinning uneasily. “L-Let’s just get goin’, huh?”

Papyrus nodded. “Finally,” he growled out, turning and walking up the steps of the tower. Sans followed him, out of energy to argue at the moment. It wouldn’t be worth it, after all. He just followed as he always was supposed to. That was how things just… went. Papyrus was always in control. 

That’d always been fine with him, really. Then, he could just… fade, for lack of a better term. He could just fade into the background and no one would bother him. Sure, every so often, he was harassed by people complaining he wasn’t strong enough. But a quick reminder that he could dodge almost perfectly and that his boss was the goddamn head of the royal guard? It had them pretty far away from him. 

The thing that bugged him was that Papyrus thought he was weak.

So what if he didn’t particularly _like_ fighting? So what if he didn’t feel like being the center of attention, didn’t have some big, lofty goal of killing the last human they needed? What the fuck did it matter? It’s not like the barrier was a problem anymore anyways. The world was over. It was just them on a new world now, one that he’d hoped to explore. He was curious.

Instead, it was all “Sans, do this” and “Sans, do that”, because if he didn’t, he was just proving he was worthless like Papyrus always said. No matter what, he would always be trapped. Just not in the way he always thought he was.

“HURRY UP!”

Sans bit back a snarl and walked faster.

They reached the top of the tower quickly, only to find… a slab. Literally, just a fucking stone slab, surrounded by 4 columns. What the fuck? They walked all the way up those fucking stairs for _this_? Sans looked around, trying to find whatever it was that had drawn the boss up to this point. Nothing. Nothing, but that slab.

“Sans.” He glanced at the Boss, who had a grim smile on his face. Oh, that did not bode well, he knew it. “This… is your Quest Bed.”

“My what?”

Papyrus groaned, his smile slipping away into a scowl. He massaged between his eyes. “I swear, of all the…” He sighed and dropped his hand, gesturing to the slab. “This. It’s called a Quest Bed. And you’re going to lay down in it.”

…

His brother was telling him to go to bed. In the middle of a war zone. There were monsters literally EVERYWHERE on this goddamn planet, and he wanted him to _sleep_. 

Sans couldn’t help it. He started to laugh. “H-Holy shit, what?” Papyrus crossed his arms, glaring. “S-Sorry boss, but I think that’s the first time you told me to sleep instead of, I dunno, gettin’ up off my lazy ass and doing something for once.”

“This is no laughing matter, Sans!” Papyrus shut his eyes tightly, tapping his foot again. “You will do as I say. _Now_.” There was a cold, familiar edge to his voice. Sans had heard it often. He sighed, glancing away from Papyrus. “Sans…” There was a warning, a threat in his voice now.

Whatever. What was the harm, right? If he did it, he’d either finally get some goddamn rest, or else Papyrus would abandon him and he’d get killed while he slept. No harm, no foul. Either way, he’d be escaping this hell. “Fine.” He walked over to the slab, glancing at the weird symbol on it. All blue and… Man, it almost reminded him of the symbol he remembered one of the Alphys’s wearing. What’d she call it? Space? But this one wasn’t quite that. The circle didn’t touch in the middle.

He shook his head and sat on the slab, lying on his back and gazing at the starry sky. At least this place had those. He took a deep breath, just… watching them. They were a lot different than the crystals in Waterfall, that was sure. They sparkled more. They pulled his attention. He could stare into that empty - almost empty, he corrected - escape forever.

“Are you asleep yet?”

He groaned, rubbing his face, eyes closed. “Gimmie a few seconds, k’ boss? I can’t just fall asleep on a whim.”

“I suppose you really don’t need to. You’ll get to sleep when the game is done.” If he didn’t need to, then why the fuck was he on this cold hard slab of rock? He opened his eyes and glanced at Papyrus.

“... Boss, why d’you still have out your bone?” Indeed, his weapon of choice was still in his hands. There weren’t any monsters up on this tower, though. It was empty, except for them.

Papyrus chuckled softly. “Don’t worry, Sans. You’ll wake up in just a moment.”

Wake up? He wasn’t-

Papyrus was standing beside the Quest Bed when he snapped. A cold feeling washed over Sans. His eyes widened in fear. He was frozen in place. He looked down quickly - his soul, blue - Papyrus had…

He looked up, sweat beading on his skull. Papyrus raised the bone in his hand.

No.

Nonononono-

“B-Boss, wait, st-!”

Without mercy, the bone came down, a sharp grin on his brother’s face.

His eyes went black. 

 

Oh god. _This is what it feels like to die_.

 

Sans was shivering. His body felt so cold suddenly. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t feel anything except cold. “P…a...py...rus….” He couldn’t shut his eyes. He just saw. 

Bone marrow was leaking out of his bones. Blood. It stained his jacket. His now dusty jacket, his bones - everything was fading. He was fading, just like he’d always wanted, into the background, out of life. But God, he’d never wanted, never imagined it like this. Not from the Boss.

Not his own brother.

 

God, he was so fucking cold. So fucking sick.

 

So fucking exhausted…

 

His dust was starting to trail off in the wind. His eyes started to close slowly.

 

Rest, his mind bidded him softly. Rest… 

 

The last thing he saw was his brother, smirking, grinning over his dying, fading body.

 

 

When he awoke, he was… He wasn’t on his planet anymore. Where… 

Everything was bright here. So very, very bright. Sans shielded his eyes, gazing over a chessboard ground - a chessfield, really. The clouds drifted past in the sky. He glanced down, and he saw… Oh.

… A Quest Bed.

It all came flooding back.

He fell back down onto the bed, gasping. His hand clutched his shirt, grabbing where his soul had been above his sternum. Was the ache there imagined? Real? He couldn’t tell, God. God, fuck, his brother had just…

He laughed, running his hand over his skull, only to feel a hood there instead. It wasn’t fuzzy like his was. What was-

He looked down at himself. He was wearing… pajamas.

Like Papyrus’s.

But on his was the symbol on his Quest Bed. That weird, blue symbol and his weird blue outfit… 

He felt sick again.

This was how his brother had gotten that outfit? By dying? You had to _die_ to get this outfit? And what came with it? Probably some sort of _fucking_ powerup or something, some sort of power that would make him “stronger”.

Sans growled, feeling… God, everything. Angry, mostly. His brother had just fucking KILLED him and hadn’t even fucking explained WHY! Did he just not fucking CARE enough, or- Oh, no, he was probably just too USELESS to explain it all to!

God, why had Papyrus not just TOLD him?

“Fuck you… FUCK. YOU!” He snarled, gripping the edge of the quest bed tightly. He wanted to scream- he did. He screamed into the silence on the planet, feeling his magic crackle around him. But it didn’t help, he still felt anger, still wanted to see his brother and GOD, he wanted to confront him, to argue, to fight-

He could.

His eyes shot open, seeing the bones he’d summoned unconsciously spin around him. He could easily get to him, he realized. He had the fucking power, didn’t he? All he had to do was use it. 

But no, his mind screamed at him. That was too far, he didn’t know where he was in relation to LOCAR.

Fuck it.

If he couldn’t use his OWN power, then he would just take it from the place he knew best. The place everyone wanted him to use, apparently, the place Papyrus had been so eager for him to use just minutes, hours, eons ago. 

Time didn’t matter. Space didn’t matter. The combination of the two, the absence of the two, that was the only thing Sans wanted now.

He snapped his fingers and made a shortcut.

He stopped halfway, savoring the feeling as he shut his eyes. Everything, so much everything that it became nothing. He’d been here for just a second before he woke up again. And now he knew it. The world was white. Blank. Lines of data streamed passed him, code screamed in his skull, but he could hear it now, clearly, he could access it, USE it, he could manipulate it any way he wanted.

He could steal it and use it the way it needed to be used, any way he needed it to be used, to achieve his goals.

He poked a hole through the other side, threading the needle and appearing next to Papyrus at his bed on LOCAR. 

“Ah! I was right, as always! Welcome back, Sa-”

“YOU MOTHERFUCKER!” He felt so good, SO fucking good when his fist made contact with Papyrus’s face, when he felt the bone against his knuckles. His boss stumbled backward, shocked, surprised. Sans landed on his feet, his hood flipped over his face. His eyes were shaded under the lip of the hood. He felt good. Really good. 

Powerful. Not weak.

Papyrus watched him, shock evident on his face. His hand was on his cheek. Suddenly, he looked ridiculous in his outfit. That stupid red outfit that matched him so well, that seemed to fit that pretentious attitude of his _perfectly_. Everything about Papyrus set him on edge now. 

“Hmph.” Papyrus stood a bit taller, his hand falling away from his cheek. “It definitely worked. You’ve finally grown a _backbone_.”

“Don’t.” Sans snarled, his eye crackling with red magic, bones spinning behind him. “Don’t you _fucking dare_.” His voice wasn’t shaking at all. He felt so good, so _determined_ to show this asshole what he had just felt like, what had just happened. He wanted to take something away from Papyrus, take away… ANYTHING for fucks sake! “You don’t get to fucking _joke_ with me after what you just did.”

Papyrus watched the bones behind his brother’s back and laughed, crossing his arms. “Are you… trying to threaten me?” He smirked. “How pathetic.”

“Pathetic?! PATHETIC?!” The bones got sharper as his magic grew. He snarled. “You know what’s fucking PATHETIC, Papyrus?! YOU.” His boss raised his brows in surprise. “YOU HEARD ME FUCKING RIGHT!”

He laughed, feeling so good to be finally SAYING this. “You sit there, beating me down constantly for one reason. Don’t pretend I don’t see it! I know the ONE reason you keep me around, and it’s fucking LAUGHABLE! Your pathetic, narcissistic ass needs someone around to feel _better_ than at all times. But it’s more than that! You need _validation_ , you need to know that someone _depends_ on you, because if they didn’t, then what GOOD were you?”

Sans started to laugh louder, grinning. He looked so shocked, so… so _scared_ suddenly. God. God that was new and it was good. “You try and pretend like you don’t need me. Like you don’t want me. But if that were _really_ the case, then you woulda dropped outta my life fuckin’ YEARS ago. The real truth is, I don’t need _you_.”

And god, how did he never realize how true that was? How POWERFUL HE WAS?

He laughed, eye flashing brighter and brighter. And finally, finally, he raised his hand. And finally, out of the Void, that lovely Void that he finally understood, finally grasped, controlled, came his weapon of choice. His _pet_.

The blaster stared Papyrus down, it’s gaping jaw already hissing as magic began to form. Papyrus’s jaw was gaping too, from awe or fear, Sans couldn’t distinguish. Though, as his boss began to back up against one of the pillars, he had to guess fear. 

The blaster hovered closer, it’s maw hissing louder as red magic sparked past its fangs. Sans was satisfied with the thump from Papyrus backing into the pillar completely. “Sans. Stop.” Oh god, he was trying to command him again. Trying to be in charge.

“I tried t’say the same thing.

Papyrus’s eyes widened as he stared down the blaster. He summoned a bone, holding it up like a shield. “Sans, stop! What do you think you’re do-”

“What I shoulda done _years_ ago,” he growled out. That bone wasn’t going to stop anything, and they both fucking knew it. “I’m finally fightin’ back. I’m finally giving you what you deserve - a fight with someone _better_ than you.”

“I did this to make you more powerful! To make you independent!”

“CONGRATS. IT WORKED!” Sans growled, pushing the blaster further, closer, MORE. The very Void was pulled into its magic. One blast. One blast would be all it took, he knew. So this is what God Tiering felt like. This is what not being weak was like. 

The blaster opened its mouth wider.

Papyrus was…

Shaking.

Ha.

 

Sans watched, a feral grin on his face. He’d longed for this moment for…

 

… When had he wanted this?...

 

His… no! He deserved this! He had just killed him! He deserved death. Kill, or be killed, that was the rule.

 

He’d never agreed with that rule.

 

But he had just agreed with it, just then! He wanted this bastard to die, his killer to die, his…

 

Brother.

 

“... What made this worthwhile, _boss_?” He lowered his hand and the blaster stood down. Papyrus was panting, sweat on his skull. Sans looked at the blaster and snapped his fingers, sending it back to where it came from with ease. Papyrus watched, shocked. Sans looked away from him. He was sick of that sight. “What made killing me worth it to you?”

For once, his brother was silent. It took him a second to find his voice, the words to make this right. “I just… wanted you-”

“To be stronger. Yeah. Right.” Sans scoffed, shoving his hands in his pockets. God. His brother has just murdered him.

And he almost stooped to that level. 

Sans turned his back to Papyrus. “I’ll see you around, bro.”

“Where are you going!?” He sounded so pissed off. Heh. 

“Anywhere that’s not around you, you prick.” Sans glanced at him, one eye flickering with magic still. A bone appeared, aimed at Papyrus. Papyrus watched it, almost fearfully. He still stood his ground, however. Undyne taught him well. 

“I absolutely forbid you to leave, Sans.”

“Nah, bro. You see, I’ve actually seen something today.” Sans turned his head again, glancing at the sky. The stars were beautiful, really. “I’ve seen that you don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself. You’ll destroy anyone and anything that gets in your way. Including your own brother.”

“But I’m not like you. Never have been, have I?” He chuckled, grin widening, never quite touching his eyes. Never quite genuine. “See, I don’t wanna care about you, but I do. You’re my brother, after all.”

“S-Stop calling me that, you pathetic-”

“BROTHERS.” Sans clenched his fist and more bones appeared. Papyrus shut up. “That’s what we are. You can’t fucking deny that anymore. I know I won’t.” Silence followed. Sans chuckled again, softly. “I’m not going to kill you, Papyrus. I’m just… gonna teach you an important lesson.”

“And what, _pray tell_ , would that be?”

“Easy.” Sans raised his hand, middle finger and thumb pressed together. He glanced back only once to see the look in his brother’s eyes. Fear. Uncertainty. “I’m gonna teach you what makes it worthwhile. I’m gonna show you what it’s like without me.”

He snapped and the bones impaled his brother, sending him back, crushing straight through his armor and pinning him to the pillar. Papyrus gasped, bloody marrow staining his fangs. Sans grinned, watching his brother’s high health slowly, slowly drop. Karma's a bitch. Heh. He turned his back, waving casually. “You’ll get off of those before you die. Have fun, brother.”

“S-SANS, LET ME GO!”

He didn’t dignify that begging with a response. If his brother really wanted to become more powerful, this would be what it took, right? Cold, hard love.

Or maybe it was LOVE.

He didn’t care either way. He started the long walk down the tower, hearing his brother struggle. In his mind, he knew exactly what he was. The thing that described him so well. What was it Alphys had called it? A classpect?

Heh. A Thief of Void.

He’d stolen the most unimportant aspects of himself from Papyrus’s mind. He’d been unimportant because he was just a servant, a weakling, a nobody.

But now?

He was powerful. He was his own warrior, his own fighter.

He was Papyrus’s brother.

The brother of the head of the royal guard.

And this feeling? This feeling of power, of rage, of everything so much that it was nothing? This feeling that no one else could rightly feel? This accomplishment? 

That feeling was what made it worthwhile.

**Author's Note:**

> I got the idea for this fic from my good friend. She was talking about how Canon Sans would be a Bard of Void, and Canon Papyrus is possibly a Page of Blood. But then, we got on the topic of AU's and realized that different AU's swap Class but not Aspect. We came to the conclusion that Underfell Paps was a Prince of Blood (which is the opposite of my own class, Sylph of Blood) and Sans was Thief of Void. Soooo, I decided to write this little drabble.


End file.
